A near-miss event is an accident that almost happened: a trip that doesn’t include a fall, for instance
Reporting near-miss events is integral if you want your business to be a safe one. You need to make sure that you understand the full scope of potentially dangerous areas in your operations, both in your processes and in your physical location. It’s important to be good at covering the normal stuff – having a solid workers’ comp process, clear and obvious wet floor signs, and having slip-and-fall prevention mats – but the companies with the best safety culture are those that also track and have employees who consistently report near-miss events as well. A near-miss is an accident that almost happened: a trip that doesn’t include a fall, for instance. Often these don’t get reported because they are laughed off, or because the form is time-consuming and complicated, or because employees have a (hopefully unfounded) fear of punishment. Don’t let these stand in the way of you understanding where your near-miss events are happening. Read on to learn why reporting near-miss events is so important for the safety of your business.
Reporting Near-Miss Events:
Prevents Incidents
The bottom line is that it is much more important to know about a near-miss and correct the issue than to have it become an actual incident later on. If your employees are proactive about spotting troublesome issues and reporting them, you can decrease the number of accidents and incidents that you have at your business.
Saves Time
This may feel counter intuitive, but it is true. While there is the added time of investigating and correcting the issues presented in the near-miss report, it is much less time consuming than dealing with an actual incident report and possibly even a workers’ comp case or a lawsuit.
Improves Safety Culture
Safety culture is about more than just looking good on paper or during an OSHA review. When you encourage and act on near-misses, your employees know that their input is valued and they see that you care to make the effort to improve their working conditions. This goes a long way towards improving morale and employee retention.
Reporting Near-Miss Events Is Preventative Maintenance
You already know the value of preventative maintenance, and this is just another form of that. Encourage employees to report issues by incentivising reporting and making the process as quick and easy as possible, so that you can stay on top of potential safety issues and fix them.
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